Day 278, Game 278 - Flower

The PS4 is coming soon. Too soon, if you ask people who are still enjoying this generation of consoles. Over the years of the PS3, there have been many games to grace the system, both good and bad, and there are still more to come before the console walks quietly off into the sunset. A handful of games in this generation have been more than just video games, provoking legitimate thoughts and emotions from the players instead of just being mindless entertainment and activities. Three of these games in handful were created by Thatgamecompany, two of which I've already written about on this blog: Journey and Flow. 

Well, I might as well finish off the trifecta of amazing experiences hidden behind the cloak of the "video game" label. I played Flower, which was second in the three games created by Thatgamecompany exclusively for the PS3 and the PSN. Sure, I wanted to play this game so that I can have all three games in the trilogy accounted for, because they deserve all the recognition and praise that my little, humble blog can dish out, but I also was inspired to do so now because of the announcement from Sony that Flower is officially being brought to the upcoming PS4 system. They didn't say if it was a Day 1 launch game on the PSN, or if it's just in development for sometime in the near future, but regardless, this is kind of a big deal. 

With the promise from Sony of their GaiKai service bringing their library to the PS4 at some point, people are already under the assumption that this service will branch into the PSN library as well with good reason. But this service won't be available at launch, and while details are still unclear how the service will work, it sounds as if it will just stream ports of the games. 

Sony's announcement made it sound as if Flower was actually being created for the PS4, as a tweet went out about actually playing it on the new system. I have to think that they wouldn't made such a big deal over just a port of an old game running on the newest system, especially with such a small, non-headline-grabbing game like Flower. So are they recreating this masterpiece of digital art for the PS4? I sure hope so, but until we know for sure, I'll be happy just playing the PS3 version. 

Like I said before, it's the farthest thing from being a game as it can get, while still holding on to the title of being one. To full explain or describe this game would be a great injustice to Flower. In it's most basic explanation, you control the movement of flower pedals by movement of your controller, while also altering the strength of wind gusts with simple button presses. While there is no text or dialogue in the game at all, there doesn't ever feel like there needs to be, as the story arch is told by your emotions and imagination. There are subtle clues as to what the game is trying to tell you as far as a story goes, but realistically, it is meant to evoke personal emotions, moments of clarity and relaxation, and a sense of getting lost somewhere else in the vehicle of digital media entertainment. Every game is a personal experience than can only be experienced to be fully understood. 

With any luck, the PS4 version of this game will be just as awe-inspiring, as any limitations the development team ran into with Flower will be fully developed to their full potentials with the remarkable PS4 system. Also, while the market will never be saturated with games like this experience, I truly hope brave independent developers continue to take chances in putting art and emotions over game play mechanics voice acting. 

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